Friday, June 29, 2012

I have noticed while I am planning the baby's nautical themed room that nautical prints are everywhere!!!! I so wish I could shop at J Crew and Tory Burch right now to take advantage of all the cute items that are available. There were so many pieces that I loved I had a really hard time narrowing down the ones I liked the best. Maybe after Thomas arrives I can throw on a nautical themed outfit and play with him in his nautical themed room and teach him to talk like a pirate. :) Here are some of my top picks that maybe you can enjoy.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I can honestly say I like most exercise except running. I will try anything once, even running here and there (even though I am miserable throughout). Some of my favorites include Spinning, Weight Training, Bikram Yoga, and my most favorite The Dailey Method.

I discovered The Dailey Method through one of my closest friends. It was down the street from my apartment in San Francisco and I would walk to it almost every day after work in the last year I lived there to attend class. When I did class 4-5 days a week AND ate very healthy, keyword and....I noticed an immediate difference in how strong and toned I was becoming. It also helped me lose some weight.(as a side note I never lose weight if I just exercise and not diet in some form. In my 20's I was able to do this but not anymore.)

Monday, June 25, 2012

Just getting back from a fantabulous weekend in San Diego visiting my sister, my sister and brother in law and their adorable 20 month old daughter. We had a lot of cousin time. I would like to say the girls played nice with each other but they are more at the stage at giving dirty looks and taking each others toys away. But cute nonetheless.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

While I haven't really begun to plan for this new baby yet (where is the time going). I did peruse through some online boys fashions. Granted there are not as many great selections and styles as for little girls. However, I did decide what kind of baby/toddler fashion icon he will be until he grows up and wants to wear bedazzled Jersey Shore douche shirts (I hope not). A little East Coast Prep anyone?

I guess the good thing about having a boy is that I don't need as many outfits as I do for a little girl, and hopefully I will save some money that way. While I most likely will not buy all Ralph Lauren or Janie and Jack, some items are just way too cute to pass up. Who wants to go sailing after our polo match? This little boy does!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

I love Pinterest. I am sure many women will tell you they love Pinterest. Whenever I have free time I just pin away to get ideas for decorating, DIY projects, and outfits. I also pin food. Well made food. Of all the DIY projects and recipes I pin I have never actually tried one. Not until yesterday. I decided to try a pin recipe that wasn't bake right out the box.

To give you some background I hate cooking. I mainly hate it because it always tastes better to me when someone else makes the food, but I also hate cleaning up the mess. I am a very messy cook. I seem to get crap everywhere, the floor, top of the pugs heads, the counters, my clothing, you name it...plus I'm lazy.

I made a caramel brownie for Nik for his birthday last year and followed the directions yet the baking pan overflowed and got all over the bottom of the oven and smelled like burnt caramel for days. That was the last time I attempted to make something from scratch.

I saw this on Pinterest and started laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. This is how many of my baking items turn out:

I love Lemon bars so I decided that is what I was going to attempt to make. I found a lovely blog post with some great shots of my dream lemon bars here: A Muse in My Kitchen and was going to mimic and share. The recipe is actually Ina Garten's from the Food Network.

I have to say I was impressed with my own work! I burnt the edges a little but overall they tasted amazing! Job well done Erin. After I took these photos I turned my back for a minute and turned back around to find Charlie the pug with two lemon bars in his mouth. Arugh. He ate both so we have a fan.

Monday, June 18, 2012

It was hot hot hot here this past weekend. It topped 109 on Sunday and I could not stand outside for more than a minute without being instantly miserable. Have I mentioned I hate hot weather? Well I also hate hot oppressive weather. :)

Alas it was Father's Day and we had to do something fun for Nik so we went to a big brunch early enough before the heat got intense. In the last week I have put on 4lbs and have really noticed my stomach growing. This has also been the beginning of some common aches and pains that go along with getting bigger in pregnancy. Only 3 months to go! Well more like 3.5 months, but I will round down to make myself feel better.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

I will be the first to admit I don't much like summer. Although I did like summer in San Francisco but that was mainly because it was cold. I like wearing layers and having comfortable cool temperatures. I am back in the hot central valley and well I have decided to embrace it as much as I can. In honor of it reaching highs of 106 degrees this weekend I wanted to show off some bathing suit and towel ideas.

Bathing suits and I do not mix well. I hate trying them on, wearing them, and finding one that doesn't make me look more fair skinned than I already am. I have only invested a good amount of money in a couple suits and the rest I try to find at bargain bottom prices so I don't have to pay for something I hate.

But in all my searches at Old Navy and Target, while I find something that will just do for the season, I never really find a suit that is as flattering as a J Crew swimsuit. There is something to be said in investing a little more money in a good quality swim suit. You may kick and scream but J Crew suits are timeless and actually can be flattering! Plus they last years! Here are some of the suits I am loving right now that cover in all the right areas.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

I am a huge Etsy fan. I am constantly searching for new and fun items to collect. I have found some amazing pieces of jewelry, baby clothing and items, and wall art all from this incredible site. I thought I would start to highlight some of my finds here so you too can enjoy some cool items.

So to get started I must confess that I have a huge tote bag obsession. Instead of buying diaper bags with a million compartments I tend to buy cheap tote bags at Target and throw everything inside. Disorganized yes, but I cannot resist them. So when I saw this shop I naturally drooled at everything in the store. Not to mention I love these dorky yet fun catch phrases. I fell even deeper when I saw they do baby onsies and tee shirts. Not sure what I will purchase first.

Monday, June 11, 2012

I have been a huge fan of Lush Cosmetics since living in San Francisco. I don't typically go out to find natural beauty products so the fact that everything is natural is a huge bonus. I use them because they work and last forever!

There is a Lush in Carmel where my parents live and every time I go to visit them I drag everyone to the store. I spend a good amount of time talking with the Lush employees and sampling products that I end up with missing parents and a disgruntled husband who clearly wants to leave. Not the most relaxing but at least I get my fix. Below I have highlighted several of my favorite products.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Well the official doctor results are in, I have bronchitis as I suspected. I had to go on a nebulizer treatment (breathing treatment) in the office because I wasn't getting much oxygen. And yet another round of stronger antibiotics. Hope this set works because I feel awful. So the last few days I have been laying around the house due to being totally out of breath and was remembering how I had once seen pictures of a Sock Bun and thought I would find myself one on my trip to Walgreens.

If you are like me and have hair that doesn't naturally lay straight or perfect without styling you want some sort of short cut so your hair looks presentable with minimum effort. I hate blow drying my hair every day and I usually pull my hair back into a bun. I did this a lot when I was working so I could get extra sleep, bad I know. So I purchased one of these sock bun kits to see if I could make it work for me and my thin hair. I was actually impressed with the results, well worth the $4 dollar price tag. Below are some pics from my practice session and results. You can get yourself one of these bad boys here: Conair Bun Maker

This is what my hair normally looks like when I pull it up into a bun:

Here is the magic sock bun holder, just make a ponytail and move the holder up to the top of the ponytail:

Next you want to take partial parts of hair and sort of wrap and tuck around the brown mesh and hold with a bobby pin:

Keep wrapping your hair around the brown bun holder with pins:

Finally just sort of fiddle with it to get the hair to cover the entire sock bun:

Clearly I need to practice to get it more smooth, but you get the gist:

About Me

Welcome! I am Erin and I am mom to Tom age 2 and Claire age 4. I love all things wine, fitness, shopping and naturally kids. I currently work part time and working on the whole life balance thing. Join along as I share in our adventures!